Destroid- The Invasion

By Andrew

Destroid’s have released their debut and after much hype and a slew of live performances to cement their domination in EDM. But what of the album? Is it the powerhouse they promised? Is it the next phase for dubstep in 2013 or are we just listening to the death march of a scene so heavily populated by North American carbon copies? I can say, quite confidently, it is indeed a powerhouse, its more than likely to be described by many as the next phase and conversely the very twisted and contorted death march of a subgenre of dance barbed with a modicum of insults from naysayers.

Destroid is an EDM supergroup and live dubstep band consisting of Excision, Downlink, and former Pendulum drummer KJ Sawka. That would usually mean it comes with lots of cred in the industry what with it containing three of the finest in new wave EDM in its ranks. But sometimes too many sooks spoil the froth (or something like that). If you are wondering why, when you love metal, you know the names Excision and Downlink; that’s because they are the driving force behind the collaboration with Korn for their last offering ‘Path of Totality’ and although not American (They’re Canadian), represent the peak of metal inspired techno across the dubstep scene.

But on to ‘The Invasion’. From the minute you load up the album you know you are going to be surprised. The way the live shows have been described (by me) is like ten thousand Daft Punk Coachella Pyramids with a heavily ‘destroid’ (see what I did there?) android carcass being eaten by those things in the matrix which hunts the ships in the future. Visions of HR Giger and aliens abound in the world of ‘The Invasion’ and if you hate the sound of metallic warping synths, avoid this. In fact, even in the midst of listening this while reviewing, I am tempted to turn it off and just push delete. But something stops me. It might be my unwavering sense of SSMB honor, or it could be my unnerving sense of hubris or stupidity while compels me to drive on. Whatever the reason, this album is one sonic assault from start to finish.

In isolation, songs like the opening track ‘Raise Your Fist’ are awesome and make you think “wow this would be a great album…” until you realize that *every* song on the debut release is like this; uncompromising, brutal, violent and oh so nausea-inducing. In amongst the robots copulation sounding songs are some more focussed entries such as ‘Flip The Switch’ featuring Messinian and more drum and bass than dubstep which is a welcome respite. You might be forgiven that Destroid is an EDM experiment gone wrong and I guess that’s partially the case. If it wasn’t for some of the choice collaborations on the album it would be a total loss. The one-true dreadlocked dubstep fiend Bassnectar makes an appearance on the album at track 6 and its one of the better entries on the list. Bassnectar is known for stomping DnB power tracks and ‘Put It Down’ is exactly what you want from the whole album. But Bassnectar brings a focus to the production that songs with collaborators don’t have on this album. Anything where Excision, Downlink and Space Laces features are a fucking mess and just an excuse to bombard the listener with Mathcore-like chaos.

And that is the point. Like how Mathcore confuses people who don’t understand it and dubstep shows how much older the original EDM heads have gotten, this is for the young, divergent hardcore fan. Their online and social media presence and marketing is unparalleled with tracks from this album originally available for free download, but only after people spread the word via Facebook, read an online graphic novel and vowed to preach the word of “The Elevated”. The elevated are the core fans of Destroid and represent a sort of clique of kiddies who praise Destroid and no one else in a sort of EDM cult of personality.

But that sort of marketing is to their detriment. It isolates and divides, with little thought to those who casually walk into the scene wanting something different. Hearing this for the first time and being told “its dubstep” would make any normal person run a mile. But it’s not dubstep; and it’s not even EDM. It’s something else again and it leaves you thinking you’ve maybe missed the point. This is where I know the scene is quickly dying. While most legit electronic producers are gravitating back towards mainstays like breaks, drum and bass and electro house, artists like Destroid are fucking a dead corpse with electric tools like an episode of Saw or Hostel. I even have time for one more analogy in my repertoire to describe this; just for kicks.